Tutorial: Realistic Watercolor Effect

The new Watercolor Brush has been one of the most popular tools since it was introduced. Today I want to show how to use that brush to create a realistic watercolor painting.

To start I am using a design from the Flowers 2 book and the Beach Time color palette.

Now in similar fashion to how I approach the Marker Tool, I like Opacity around 50% and the brush size at the max.

Starting from the center of flowers I slowly circle around letting the brush laydown layers of color. I extend out from the center a little bit to let a light layer of color spread around the petals.

After the base layer has been applied I raise the Opacity a bit and circle around the center again.

I continue this process throughout the design changing up the colors as I go.

Remember that to help create a realistic watercolor look it helps to have areas of vivid color. This is suppose to represent when a watercolor is first applied to paper. Its starts off very vibrant and as you spread the pigment out the color begins to lighten.

For added effect I decided for this piece that I was not going to stay within the lines. Additionally I added a light layer of watercolor to the background to finish it up.

We would love to see the work you produce using the watercolor brush and the technique just shown. If you post your work to social media make sure to tag #pigmentapp for an opportunity to be featured.